Thursday, April 25, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
The Missile Defense Agency plans to severely cut back its effort to build a land-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor that can destroy ballistic missiles during their early, boost phase of flight, slicing $800 million from the program's budget in fiscal year 2006 and shelving international participation for at least two years, a senior Defense Department official said Feb. 4.
The Missile Defense Agency will tell Congress next week it plans to delay choosing an overseas launch site for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program being developed to protect the United States from ballistic missile attacks, according to several industry sources familiar with MDA's fiscal year 2006 budget plan.
The Navy announced today that Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $1.7 billion contract to build a new fleet of presidential helicopters.
Following Sunday's elections in Iraq, the Bush administration will look to shift the role of U.S. forces in Iraq away from providing security and toward training more Iraqi troops to assume greater security responsibilities, a senior Defense Department official said today.
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said today that the committee will soon examine the thorny issue of whether troops deployed in Iraq have enough armored humvees and trucks, an issue several committee members discussed with military officials during a recent trip to Baghdad.
The Navy's top acquisition official late last month approved a new department-wide policy governing the use of digital formats for new technical data and for converting existing technical documents to digital format.
A Pentagon task force has been formed to review and evaluate force protection plans during post-combat operations in conflicts like those ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Raising questions over how the Missile Defense Agency plans to field a new Kinetic Energy Interceptor, House and Senate authorizers last week cut $163 million from the agency's fiscal year 2005 budget request for the program.
Libya is close to completely dismantling the nuclear and ballistic missile programs it announced it would give up last December, a State Department official told a House subcommittee today.
The Navy has begun mandatory anthrax and smallpox vaccinations for sailors, Marines and some civilian workers traveling to and near Iran, Afghanistan and Korea, among several other countries, according to an internal message issued Sept. 1 by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark.
The Defense Department would retain control of its two principle intelligence budgets under an intelligence reorganization bill proposed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.
The Army is conducting a study of the possible intensity and length of guerrilla warfare in Iraq, focusing on drawing up an estimate of U.S. and coalition casualties to determine appropriate force size and the cost of the conflict.
The United States needs a new national security structure -- combining diplomacy and a new intelligence approach -- to negate the looming threat posed by nearly 70 countries spread across the Middle East and Africa that have failed or are near failure, David Kay told a security industry conference today.
The Missile Defense Agency could have the second of six interceptor rockets planned for Ft. Greely, AK, in the ground by the middle of next month, with another handful due to be emplaced by October, an MDA spokesman said this week.
The Defense Department will need another $12.3 billion on top of the $65 billion Congress has already approved for war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during fiscal year 2004, the Government Accountability Office contends in a new report.
The Defense Science Board has begun studying how the Pentagon can best sell the technical capabilities and strategic benefits of the Bush administration's nascent national missile defense system to U.S. allies and potential enemies.
Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Joseph McMenamin has taken over as director of the Iraq Survey Group, which has been searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq for more than a year, the Defense Department announced today.
The Defense Department will ask Congress to approve shifting about $2.5 billion within the department's 2004 budget to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other unrelated bills, the Pentagon's top budget official said today.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's delay of a decision on whether to procure Boeing KC-767 refueling tankers for the Air Force could lead to a new competition for the aircraft, a Defense Department official said today.
By the end of calendar year 2004, the Bush administration will have eight interceptor missiles it can place on alert status to defend against a North Korean ballistic missile attack, the head of the Pentagon's missile defense program told a Senate subcommittee today.